You've done the loop, eaten more than you meant to, and now you're stood outside Borough Market wondering where everyone else has gone. The answer is almost always: the pub. This corner of Southwark has been serving drinkers for as long as it's been serving food, and the streets around the market are stacked with genuinely good, genuinely old pubs rather than the generic tourist bars you'd find near most other London landmarks. We've run tastings a short walk south of here since 2014, so we send guests this way constantly before they head down to join us - this is our honest guide to where to drink once the stalls start packing up.
Why the market itself isn't really the place to drink
We covered the market properly in our first-timer's guide to Borough Market, but it's worth repeating the short version here: Borough Market leans food over beer. There are a handful of bars and wine counters trading inside and around the edges, useful for a quick glass between stalls, but nobody plans a proper session around the market itself. For that, you step outside it - onto the streets that ring the market, which is where the actual pub crawl begins.
The Market Porter - the one everyone asks about
Ask anyone for a Borough Market pub recommendation and this is usually the first name out of their mouth. The Market Porter sits right by the market's Stoney Street entrance and has long been known for opening earlier than most London pubs, a habit that dates back to serving traders finishing their overnight shifts. It's also picked up a following among Harry Potter fans, thanks to the cobbled street outside doubling as a filming location. Exact opening hours shift, so check the pub's own listing before you plan a morning around it - but whatever time you turn up, expect it to be busy, low-ceilinged, and full of cask ale drinkers who know what they're doing.
The Rake - if you want proper craft beer
Tucked into Winchester Walk inside the market itself, The Rake is tiny - standing room mostly, a handful of stools if you're lucky - but its bottle and tap list is one of the most ambitious in the area, rotating through UK and international craft beer far beyond what you'd find in a typical pub. It's less about lingering over a pint and more about working through a few interesting halves while you're passing through, which suits a market visit better than a long sit-down session anyway.
The George Inn - for the history
A short walk off Borough High Street, The George Inn is the last galleried coaching inn left in London, owned by the National Trust and dating back centuries in one form or another on this site. It's more a place to stand in the courtyard and take in the architecture with a pint than a destination for a big night out, but if you only stop at one pub for the history alone, make it this one. Like anywhere this popular, it gets full fast on a warm evening, so aim for earlier in the day if you want to actually sit down.
The quieter Southwark classics
Beyond the three names everyone knows, the streets around London Bridge station and Borough High Street hold a decent run of proper, unpretentious pubs that rarely make anyone's "top 10" list but are exactly what you want after a heavy lunch - traditional boozers with cask ale, a few tables free even on a Saturday, and none of the queue you'll find at the market's famous names. Menus, hours and even which brewery's beer is on tap change often enough in this part of London that naming specific pubs beyond the three above would go stale fast, so treat any local pub with a queue out the door on a weekday afternoon as a decent sign you've found a good one, and don't be afraid to walk a street or two back from the market itself.
When to go if you want to actually get a seat
Saturday lunchtime is the worst time to try any of this - the market is at its busiest and every pub within five minutes of it fills up with the same crowd spilling out once they've finished eating. If you want a proper sit-down pint rather than standing room, aim for a weekday afternoon, or a Saturday morning before the market itself gets going. Sunday is quieter for a different reason: much of the market closes, so the crowds thin out, though check individual pub opening hours since a few keep shorter Sunday hours of their own.
Carrying on south: from Borough Market pubs to Bermondsey taprooms
If a couple of pints around Borough Market has you in the mood for more, the smart move is to keep walking south rather than stopping here. Bermondsey Street and the streets immediately around London Bridge station hold a proper run of craft beer bars and bottle shops, covered in our guide to craft beer near London Bridge. Push on another ten to fifteen minutes and you're into the railway arches proper, where the Bermondsey Beer Mile runs - independent breweries trading directly out of the arches they brew in, which is a genuinely different experience to a traditional pub, however good the pub. If you'd rather have the history explained as you walk rather than figure the route out yourself, our free, self-guided Southwark Brewing Heritage Walk starts at Borough Market and finishes right at the head of the Beer Mile.
Doing it properly: pubs, then a guided tasting
A lot of our guests build their day exactly this way - lunch and a pint or two around Borough Market, a wander down through Bermondsey Street, then joining us for a guided tasting rather than trying to pick breweries at random. Our Bermondsey Beer Tasting Tour (£49pp) runs 2 to 3.5 hours through four independent taprooms, starting at Southwark Brewing Co on Druid Street, with the beer included in the price. If food's as much the point as the beer, our Cheese, Meat & Beer Tour (£65pp, Saturdays 12-2:30pm) pairs tastings with proper cheese and cured meat, which suits anyone who's already filled up at the market and wants the afternoon to lean savoury rather than starting from scratch.
Group visits and bigger sessions
Because pubs near Borough Market get busy fast, they're not always the easiest place to keep a big group together - which is one reason so many stag dos, hen parties and work socials use the market and its pubs as a starting point before moving on to something more organised. All three of our tours run as private bookings for groups of 6 up to 60 or more; see our private and group tours page if you're planning something bigger than a casual wander between pubs.
A day out, gifted
If you know someone who'd enjoy exactly this kind of day - market, pub, taproom - our gift vouchers are bought directly on that page, delivered instantly by email, and never expire, so there's no pressure on the recipient to pick a date straight away. They can build their own version of this route whenever suits them.
The honest summary: the pubs immediately around Borough Market - the Market Porter, The Rake, The George Inn, and the quieter ones tucked into the surrounding streets - are as much a part of a visit here as the stalls themselves, and worth building time for rather than treating as an afterthought. Just don't stop there if you've still got an appetite for beer; the railway arches ten minutes south do something genuinely different, and we'd be glad to show you round.